By Michelle Ramsay-Borg
Lowertown resident Karen Bailey is a well-known artist whose paintings focus on those who work behind the scenes and are often under-recognized. Her latest project continues this theme, focussing on Stanley, a puppy who is being raised by Karen to be a guide dog for the blind. The project, an exhibition called ‘Raising Stanley’, is a collaboration between Karen and storyteller Kim Kilpatrick, who has shared her life with four guide dogs.
Despite being a puppy walker, Karen did not know much about the working life of a guide dog. Kim was curious about how guide dog puppies are raised. The Raising Stanley project was born out of a common need to fill in the gaps not only for themselves, but also tell the story from start to finish so others could learn. Raising Stanley both debunks common misconceptions of service animals and highlights how they enrich the community of people and animals.
“My husband Iain and I heard Kim perform stories about her guide dogs at an Ottawa Storytellers event in 2011,” Karen recounts. One month later, we received our first guide dog puppy from the Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind.”
The organization places puppies at about seven weeks of age with foster families called ‘puppy walkers’ who raise the pups for 12 to 18 months. The puppy walkers socialize the pups to as many different, everyday environments as possible, teaching them to be good citizens.
The dogs go to formal training at the Guide Dog Centre for 6 to 9 months, where they are trained to be good guides. Karen explains, “Every week, Stanley attends an obedience class with other guide dog puppies. That’s where he learns how to work.” Once traine – a two-year process in total – the guide dog is carefully matched with its handler.
So, how does a visual art exhibition incorporate storytelling? Quite gracefully.
At the vernissage on June 14th, Karen’s paintings of Stanley the puppy were the backdrop as Kim told engaging stories about life with guide dogs, including her present on – Tulia, a six-year-old black lab. Both Stanley and Tulia were present at the opening. For the rest of the five-week exhibition, visitors were able to listen to audio renditions of Kim’s stories while they viewed Karen’s paintings.
The painting called The Staircase is a self-portrait of Karen carrying Stanley down some steep stairs. In the description that accompanies the painting, she explains, “Stairs present a challenge for many dogs. One of the puppy-walking rules is that a pup must be twice the height of one stair before he is allowed to navigate alone in order to protect his hip joints.”
One of Kim’s stories illustrates Tulia’s resourcefulness. Kim has a favourite coffee shop, where she sometimes had trouble finding a seat. She recalls, “When I started going with Tulia, I thought she’s so great, she always finds me an empty table. Then one day, a lady said to me, “Your dog, she’s so funny. When she comes in, she decides where she wants to sit and then she goes there and convinces the people to move.”
I said, “There’s people?” “Oh yes,” she replied. “She sits there staring at them and looking so sweet – until they move.” There were more stories, including one that illustrated when it’s OK to pet a guide dog. “Never ever when she’s wearing her harness. You wouldn’t touch a police officer in uniform, would you? If you pet her when she’s wearing her harness, it could distract her from her work and I might be put in danger.” Kim added, “But she knows when I take off her harness she can play. I will take it off her now; watch what happens.” What we saw then was a dog wagging her tail vigorously and revelling in the petting she received from nearby a dog-lover.
Karen concluded the presentation: “Listening to Kim recount her experiences of how guide dogs enrich her life helped Iain and I to understand the significant role we play as puppy walkers. When people ask, “How are you ever going to give him up,” I immediately think of Kim. From day one, we knew we were raising a puppy for an important purpose.”
Raising Stanley is a work in progress. Kim and Karen are currently seeking funding and space for a much larger exhibition to be presented in late 2016 or in 2017.